Petition: Rename America

[KaiserDave]

No (loves slavery and hates brown people)

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

During his (very brief) time in Congress, Horace Greeley submitted a bill renaming the country to "Columbia". Good thing it didn't pass

Such a proposal would naturally be a non-starter, but I've always found the country being named "America" as a bit generic and bland, while all other American countries (even big ones like Canada and Brazil) have unique names.

It is sort of an odd situation in that, to my knowledge, the only collective name for the colonies that would have existed was "America", which just so happened to also be the name for the region as a whole. In some sense, it's sort of appropriate in that you had a collection of different colonies come together as "The United States of America". The unique names would have emerged in an alternate timeline where each colony or region of colonies chose its own path ("Virginia", "South Carolina" "New England"...). If my basic memory of history is correct, the reason that each country in South America has its own name is that projects for a "United States of South America" fell through in the early nineteenth century. FTR, "Columbia" would have been a profoundly ahistoric name for the country.

[Former President tack50]

It is also worth noting that the name Columbia would almost certainly be too close to the country of Colombia (and the reasoning would be the same). So probably not a good name regardless

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

People in power in the United States of America can rename the United States of America, but they can't really rename America, because continents are not official entities and do not have official names.

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

I sense that I have shaved 2 points off of my IQ from reading this thread.  I am not certain that a trailer full of Prevagen will undo the damage.

[vitoNova]

Yes.

Hispanics and latinos are every bit as "American" as US citizens.

So it is not very accurate. 

[7,052,770]

Yes, rename after Haesteinn:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastein

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

During his (very brief) time in Congress, Horace Greeley submitted a bill renaming the country to "Columbia". Good thing it didn't pass

Such a proposal would naturally be a non-starter, but I've always found the country being named "America" as a bit generic and bland, while all other American countries (even big ones like Canada and Brazil) have unique names.

It is sort of an odd situation in that, to my knowledge, the only collective name for the colonies that would have existed was "America", which just so happened to also be the name for the region as a whole. In some sense, it's sort of appropriate in that you had a collection of different colonies come together as "The United States of America". The unique names would have emerged in an alternate timeline where each colony or region of colonies chose its own path ("Virginia", "South Carolina" "New England"...). If my basic memory of history is correct, the reason that each country in South America has its own name is that projects for a "United States of South America" fell through in the early nineteenth century. FTR, "Columbia" would have been a profoundly ahistoric name for the country.

Why would "Columbia" have been ahistoric ? It was commonly in use in the time, wasn't it?

[Del Tachi]

It is also worth noting that the name Columbia would almost certainly be too close to the country of Colombia (and the reasoning would be the same). So probably not a good name regardless

Australia and Austria.
Barbuda and Barbados.
Congo and Congo.
Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, and Guinea-Bisseu.

And c'mon, we all know which "Columbia" would immediately come to mind whenever the name was mentioned 

[Storr]

Union of Mexico, US, Canada, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Greenland, St. Pierre and Miquelon, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, all Leeward and Windward islands (including Trinidad and Tobago) : The Union of North America

583 million people strong, it would truly be the greatest nation on Earth.

[Figueira]

Anyway, today I'll be attending a city council meeting on renaming my high school, which was named for a slave owner. I will be using the argument outlined in this thread. I thought I'd test it out on you guys to see if there are any decent retorts to it, and apparently there aren't. Thanks for your help.

"America" is simply a geographic descriptor. If anything the name should be changed because the country doesn't encompass the entirety of both continents.

[John Dule]

Anyway, today I'll be attending a city council meeting on renaming my high school, which was named for a slave owner. I will be using the argument outlined in this thread. I thought I'd test it out on you guys to see if there are any decent retorts to it, and apparently there aren't. Thanks for your help.

"America" is simply a geographic descriptor. If anything the name should be changed because the country doesn't encompass the entirety of both continents.

Exactly. The name originally referred to an individual but has now taken on another meaning for all of us. Likewise, my high school's name no longer refers just to a slave trader; it has taken on a different meaning for those of us who went there.

[Figueira]

Anyway, today I'll be attending a city council meeting on renaming my high school, which was named for a slave owner. I will be using the argument outlined in this thread. I thought I'd test it out on you guys to see if there are any decent retorts to it, and apparently there aren't. Thanks for your help.

"America" is simply a geographic descriptor. If anything the name should be changed because the country doesn't encompass the entirety of both continents.

Exactly. The name originally referred to an individual but has now taken on another meaning for all of us. Likewise, my high school's name no longer refers just to a slave trader; it has taken on a different meaning for those of us who went there.

If the US was called "Amerigo Vespucci Memorial Republic" or something like that, it might be a different story.

But really, you're being a jerk at best and a racist at worst. Literally nothing bad will happen from changing your high school's name (provided they come up with a good alternative). Meanwhile black students will be able to attend that school without having that connection hanging over them.

[John Dule]

Anyway, today I'll be attending a city council meeting on renaming my high school, which was named for a slave owner. I will be using the argument outlined in this thread. I thought I'd test it out on you guys to see if there are any decent retorts to it, and apparently there aren't. Thanks for your help.

"America" is simply a geographic descriptor. If anything the name should be changed because the country doesn't encompass the entirety of both continents.

Exactly. The name originally referred to an individual but has now taken on another meaning for all of us. Likewise, my high school's name no longer refers just to a slave trader; it has taken on a different meaning for those of us who went there.

If the US was called "Amerigo Vespucci Memorial Republic" or something like that, it might be a different story.

But really, you're being a jerk at best and a racist at worst. Literally nothing bad will happen from changing your high school's name (provided they come up with a good alternative). Meanwhile black students will be able to attend that school without having that connection hanging over them.

Nobody cares about this superficial garbage aside from rich white liberals. I don't want to throw them a bone on this because then they'll feel like they've accomplished something without actually doing anything to combat racism. They don't deserve to have their virtue-signaling rewarded.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Maybe we could start calling America "Eriksonia" because of Leif Erikson.